heres a tutorial paper i did on hound as an assignment from last year. it got 24/25
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When confronted with a mirror, one is often forced to examine the reflection of reality starting back at him. The quality of the reflection ultimatly depends upon the quality of the mirror, and the depth of insight into that representation of reality is often determined by the individuals own beliefs and ideas which are, in turn, shaped by their own context. To some extent, the play ‘The Real Inspector Hound’ by Tom Stoppard is a mirror of the values and assumptions that readers bring to a text, and by reflecting these, we are able to better understand our role in relation to the theatre, and the role of the theatre in our world. Hound is post-modern examination of the notions of genre, in particular its usefulness in classification and the relevance of crime fiction in modern day society, as well as the role of the theatre of the absurd and the relationship between audience, actor and critic.
The ‘Real Inspector Hound’ is a uniquely self reflexive text that is both meditative and investigative as it explores the interrelationship between observers and participators as we watch Birdboot and Moon become gradualy drawn into the play. In this manner, Stoppard is not writing crime fiction but utilising it to explore the roles we play and the ways in which we interact with our world. The plot is based on Agatha Christies ‘Mousetrap’ and as this is of the traditional cosy school detective style, Hound mocks the logic of that formula. Rosemary Colman comments that ‘Stoppard uses the genre as a vehicle to examine reality through the use of the double layered play-within-a-play’. Coleman also notes that Hound is an unique comment on the modern day values and uses of Crime Fiction, the role of the theatre and the relevance of the concept of genre itself in this postmodern world. As moral ambiguity confronts the observor as a result of the play’s resolution, we are left to ponder wether logical deduction is still relevant in the 20th century, and wether this form of literary classification is outdadted due to the fast paced technology-centered society in which we live. Tony Britton examines the way in which the play challenges the role of logic and reason in crime fiction and thus the lack of such stability in real life by using the principles of theatre of the absurd where chaos is dominant. Stoppard’s use of the theatre of the absurd is a reflection of his context as the postmodern era was often left questioning the nature of existence. His choice of the crime fiction genre was an appropriate decision as it’s many conventions were easy to subvert and hence satirise and over exemplify to give the impression that there is no logic in life. In a further study of Hound’s postmodern origins, Beckett’s ‘waiting for godo’ is an effective example of this style of theatre that was establilshed as a bleak outlook upon the world as a result of the horrors of World War 2.
Throughout the play, Stoppard uses such techniques as comic misunderstanding as represented in the lines ‘Drink?’ – ‘More serious than that’ to parody the very logic of crime fiction through such breakdowns in communicatoin. A. Camus further expands upon Stoppard’s choice of the absurdist drama form by stating that ‘it is necessary to wonder what the meaning of life is, for if the world were clear, art would not exist’. This is manifest in Moon’s comment ‘yes, I will go so far- he has given us the human condition’. Stoppard uses such lines as this, and the use of strategically placed pauses, to thint that there are several layers of meaning within this apparently simplistic play.
In this manner, Hound is able to reflect the context in which it was written. Schlueter comments that ‘art emerges in Hound as a force capeable of controlling reality’. If the mirror that reflects our reality is an illusion then perhaps reality is an illusion after all’. As the barriers between the theatre and the stage dissolve the distinction between the real and the fictional disappears. The play also holds elements of the post modern tendency for psycological selfexamination, as other crime fiction texts often depict this phenomena through such actions as a dramatic staging of the autopsy such as the one in ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’ where man is able to dig deep into the corpse to better understand himself. Hound also examines the real world and assesses the impact of our actions via replay. Thus it can be seen that Hound is a detailed postmodern response to the role of theatre and the relevance of genre and classification in our lives. In this way, Hound is similar to ‘The Big Sleep’ as it is an adequate representation of it’s own social and cutural milieu as was Howard Hawks’ film in representing the nature of Los Angeles in the 1940s and the relevance of the crime fiction genre to that particular period in time
It is through the theatre critics Bridboot and Moon that we examine our own roles as observers and Stoppard is able to divulge an opinion about humanity’s iresistable urge to role play.
D Warren commented that ‘From the established satirical niche, Stoppard can toss out grenades of devastating parody at both the crime fiction convention and the language in which the critics approach it’. This play has been seen to link to Pirandellos ‘trilogy of the theatre within the theatre with explores the hypnotic attraction of role playing’. The effect of the mirrors leads us to observe our own fate at a farcical remove. Farce is used in the play to a ridiculous extent, where exagggerated physical conditions are used such as Cynthia exiting the tennis court in a full coctail dress. Puns, cliches such as ‘its raining pins and needles’, double entendre and hyperbole are effectively ustilised to attack the logic of crime fiction, thus highlighting the main elements of the genre via pretentiousness and verbosity, and posing the audience with the question of ‘is genre classification is relevent anymore?’ This use of a known genre renders Stoppard able to comment on the role of genre and to examine the role of the theatre as a mirror of our world. Through such useage of the techniques of parody, Stoppard is making the point that the contemporary whodunnit has roots in melodrama. Yet the play also serves to fill the desires of the playwright, as Stoppard parodies those who take serious a parody of a parody. He claims that Hound is ‘a sort of a mechanical toy. It is a nuts and bolts play’.
The ultimate outcome of the ‘Real Inspector Hound’ lies in the response of the audience. It is up to us to delve into the depths of this mirror and to extract the levels of meaning significant to us as individuals. As hinted in the title, Stoppard asks us to question the notions of ‘real’ as often presented to us in such logical thrillers as ‘The DaVinci Code’ and ‘The Skull Beneath The Skin’. As many critics have responded to the hidden messages with in the play, Stoppard is able to prove that genre is not dead. Through his very use of the crime fiction genre, he is able to show that, in the words of C. Miller, ‘genre shapes and is shaped by cultural attitudes and societal influence of the time. Genres act as social and cultural barometers’. This adequatley refelcts Stoppard’s vision of a postmodern ananlysis of genre, the theatre and the role of the responder as reflected in his play ‘The Real inspector Hound’ which serves as a entertianing parody of one of the oldest genres of all time.
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hope it helps!
